Kailh BOX Navy vs Kailh BOX White
Weight is the real gap here: 15 g between the Kailh BOX Navy and the Kailh BOX White at actuation, which is enough to change how a long session ends. Our switch library cross-links them because this matchup keeps coming up. Start with the A/B bursts below, then take the spec table and the picks in order.
Hear them back to back
simulated from real specssound loads on your first tapShortcuts: press A or B anywhere outside a text box to fire that burst. Use the volume trims to loudness-match the pair before judging which sounds better.
Spec by spec
| Spec | Kailh BOX Navy | Kailh BOX White |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Clicky | Clicky |
| Brand rates force at | actuation | actuation |
| Actuation force | 60 g | 45 g |
| Bottom-out force | not published | 60 g (our estimate) |
| Pre-travel | 1.8 mm | 1.8 mm |
| Total travel | 3.6 mm | 3.6 mm |
| Silent (dampened) | No | No |
| Factory lubed | No | No |
| MX-compatible stem | Yes | Yes |
| Price tier | Mid-range | Mid-range |
| Street price | varies | varies |
Both of these are rated at actuation, which is the one case where the advertised numbers compare directly. Every other force row still has to be matched basis to basis. Kailh publishes no bottom-out figure for the Kailh BOX White, so the figure marked "our estimate" is our own derivation from the forces that are published rather than a rating. What actuation force actually measures .
Verdict
Both the Kailh BOX Navy and the Kailh BOX White are clickies, so this matchup comes down to weight, travel and sound rather than feel. 15 g at actuation is a bracket apart, not a shade, and it is the Kailh BOX Navy carrying the heavier end at 60 g. What really separates them is sound, with the Kailh BOX Navy tending toward the deepest, loudest, most forceful click in production and the Kailh BOX White toward sharp, clean tick-tick; click bar snapping on press and release. By use case, then: the Kailh BOX White for gaming and typing, the Kailh BOX Navy for a shared office. Read that office call as relative: the Kailh BOX Navy clicks too, just less insistently.
- Gaming pick
- Kailh BOX White
- Typing pick
- Kailh BOX White
- Office pick
- Kailh BOX Navy
Force curves
Kailh BOX Navy
Kailh publishes no bottom-out force for this switch, so the dashed end of the curve is an estimate, not a spec. Everything up to actuation comes from the published numbers.
Kailh BOX White
Kailh publishes no bottom-out force for this switch, so the 60 g at the end of the stroke is our estimate and the run into it is dashed. Everything up to actuation comes from the published numbers. How we derive it.
Kailh BOX Navy or Kailh BOX White: the long answer
Take the mechanical side first, since that is where this pair separates. The springs are a long way apart: 60 g against 45 g at actuation, so the Kailh BOX Navy asks noticeably more of your fingers across a long session. Both are clickies either way, so each announces actuation to your finger and to the room at once. The two stroke depths are identical, 1.8 mm to actuation inside 3.6 mm of total travel. Everything else about them is close enough that the spring is the honest tiebreak.
Sound decides more of these arguments than force curves do. Two different voices: the deepest, loudest, most forceful click in production on the Kailh BOX Navy, sharp, clean tick-tick; click bar snapping on press and release on the Kailh BOX White. A click you love at your own desk can still be the loudest thing in someone else’s meeting. Both packs are synthesized rather than recorded, so read the comparison as a faithful sketch of each voice and not as a measurement of it.
On what they cost to fill a board, both are mid priced. Lube is on you with both of these, which is a real cost in time whichever one you order.
The split is simple. Buy the Kailh BOX White for how it plays and how it writes: it wins on a lighter spring at actuation, and at the keyboard all day, the click keeps a long session in rhythm, assuming nobody nearby objects. Buy the Kailh BOX Navy if other people have to sit near it, as neither of these belongs in a quiet shared room, and this is only the less punishing of the two clicks. Whichever way you land, listen to both above with the volume trims matched before you spend anything.
For either one on its own terms, read the Kailh BOX Navy page and the Kailh BOX White page. Or leave switches aside for a minute and run your current keyboard through the free keyboard tester.
Frequently asked questions
For gaming, should I buy the Kailh BOX Navy or the Kailh BOX White?
We pick the Kailh BOX White for gaming. Of the two it has the quicker, less intrusive stroke, winning on a lighter spring at actuation.
Kailh BOX Navy or Kailh BOX White: which one is quieter?
Neither is quiet. Two click mechanisms means two switches that broadcast every press, and picking between them will not save your colleagues. If noise decides this, look at a silent tactile instead.
Is the Kailh BOX Navy heavier than the Kailh BOX White?
The Kailh BOX Navy is heavier: 60 g against 45 g, both measured at actuation, so this is a fair like-for-like comparison.
More comparisons
More vs Kailh BOX Navy
More vs Kailh BOX White
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